The hold of the vast alien box that currently carried himself and 4999 (or thereabouts) other Genoan soldiers of the Varcampth royal family was tight, dark and had far too little air in it for his liking.

But it was this or be outside.

With the Vacuum and minus 250 degree temperatures that would cause skin to freeze and explode as the pressure pulled his lungs out through his throat in a bloody shredded mess.

These Scythians scared the living shit out of him.

He could only wish, over and over again that he could somehow travel back a year into the past and stop the Genoan first contact from ever happening, back into a time when the worst war that Kerrus would ever have to worry about was the 300 year old cold war between the Varcampth, Maar and Tylian royal families and the possibility of being forced into deployment on the edge of the uncharted continents.

Now he had been ripped from his vast homeworld of seas, archepeligoes and endless sky into the depths of space due to the terms of alliance presented by the vacuum dwellers.

He had been far from the Capitol of Varcampth as the humongous red ships descended from the sky and the Scythians had set foot on the prestigious world of Genoad. They came offering both wondrous technologies and a terrible promise.

They could offer free, cheap and clean power by something they called Antimatter, endless medical technologies, star maps and the interstellar drives needed to travel them along with hoardes of other technologies – on the grounds that the Genoan Royal families ended their 300 year long cold war and joined into an alliance with the Scythian Empire against an enemy far larger and far more dangerous than Genoan minds had ever considered . . .

The Immortals.

The Scythian holograms showed image after image of battlefields, before during and after as the vast armies of the Immortal Empire decimated cities, killed millions and enslaved others – throwing their mortal soldiers like meat into a grinder until everything before them was levelled and no hope of retaliation remained.

All of this was nothing however, compared to the first space battle the Genoan Royals had the treat of being shown. Even the great Anti-gravity propelled flying battleships that they had been keeping in reserve if the world ever went to war where nothing compared to the space borne behemoths that lobbed city levelling firepower at each other as if it was nothing more than confetti.

Then came the final slap of reality to our tiny world – the map of the galaxy around us as world after world had been disappearing for almost a year.

Of course, more proof was required – but eventually the Genoan Royals finally ended their cold war and signed entire legions of troops onto the roll that could be called upon if the Scythian Empire ever needed use of them until we could ever provide their own spacecraft.

So here Kerrus stood – in the hold of a Scythian Battleship by the name of the “Solaris” as they prepared to cycle what they called the “FTL drive” for a “Jump” and all he could feel was fear through to his very bones as the world around him warped and spread wide before colours swallowed his vision.

-----

“Sir, our first jump is complete – synchronising our clocks with the rest of the battle groups and preparing for our next jump to the primary rendezvous point.” Safros reported to the captain across the bridge of the Solaris.

It had been almost a year now since the Solaris had its encounter what was now being called the “Unliving nightmares” and the events that had lead to the Britannian empire unofficially declaring war on the Scythian Empire as the galaxy itself seemed to be giving way under the fires of war.

The Immortals had continued to gather steam since that unfortunately fateful day as more and more worlds came under attack, empires turned on each other and chaos had almost absorbed half of the southern arm of the galaxy.

Now the Solaris, with its sister battleship the Tempestura and their sub battle group, including a new Gladiator class carrier, a dozen Rigel Kentaurus class Destroyers and 30 Savager frigates where cruising the darkness of interstellar space en-route to what was only being referred to as “Rally point prime” through orders from the Admiralty in what must have been the largest call to arms since the war had begun to rear its ugly head.

Safros didn’t know much – he had been beginning to develop the habit of selective hearing and being in the wrong place in the right time had managed to wrangle him away from seeing the larger galactic picture of destruction, top secret motions that seemed to drag his world with it, KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN and a dozen other things he wished he could cleanse from passing his ears so he could revert back to being in a simple existence.

Unfortunately – he hadn’t quite gotten away from it this time. Rally point prime was in the process of acquiring every space worthy ship in the entire southern quadrant, one of the five quadrants that made up Scythian space – apparently Lord Shadowscythe himself was leading from his personal Emperor class Super-Battleship the Mantorok had arrived all the way from Rigel Kentaurus with the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence devoting dozens of assets from hidden, secret or outright denied projects from this side of the galaxy.

A small beep across his screen expanded into numbers and raw data from the ships in the fleet.

“Sir – all clocks are synchronised and FTL drives are ready to go. Jump on your order.” Safros reported once more.

“Thank you Safros – all ships, jump to Rally Point Prime in one minute” The captain replied as he shifted forward in his command chair.

-----

The Solaris, Tempestura and their fleet emerged in a flash of radiation at the very edge Rally Point Prime to be greeted with an instant flash authorisation of command codes, IFF transponder responses, AI handshakes, data packet exchanges and dozens of other forms of wavelength to identify themselves with.

In the distance almost 2000 ships of varying class, from Frigates, destroyers, cruisers, carriers and battleships organised themselves into a loose arcing formation around the edge of a long abandoned asteroid mining base, or at least – what appeared to be an abandoned base from a distance.

Today it was however, a hive of military activity.

The entire front of the base opened into a vast hangar that held four battleships ready to launch within its maw, with another four behind those in the final stages of assembly, the usually pot-marked outer skin of the vast rock now opened in 300 strategic points to reveal the now almost iconic Scythian double mounted laser turrets used on their Monarch class battleships, along with almost a thousand smaller laser cannons designed to destroy smaller missiles and fighter craft.

A short distance from the hive, sat the Mantorok in the rough “centre” of the battle group a dozens of other battleship class vessels arranged themselves in a rough globe of firepower around the capitol ship.

On the bridge of the capitol ship, one figure stood in the background of a handful of men and women, the highest members of Navy personnel before the Office of Naval Intelligence and then the Emperor himself, the Scythian High Admiralty.

“Why the hell would the Immortals want this goddamn rock anyway? It’s nothing more than a class 1 colony world that happened to have a meteorological research base on it” Admiral Stansforth stated allowed while frowning at the central hologram station, watching semi transparent Immortal ships drop out of hyperspace and start destroying orbiting Scythian vessels before dropping troops directly to the ground.

“Because the damn thing is also classed as a case word Orange I presume.” A female Admiral replied. Admiral Mera was old and frail with gray tendering hair and a razor sharp stare, which she shot backwards to the figure behind them.

“Ugh, with all the anomalies, relics and Scythia only knows what other horrors that O.N.I finds hiding out in the black you’d think they’d let us in on the game, we’re only supposed to be second to the Emperor himself.” Admiral Mera added to the room, obviously embittered by the secrets being kept from her.

The figure behind the group finally stepped forward, his features still hidden by the low lighting and the obscure glow of the holographic display.

“Mera is right, this world is classified by O.N.I as being under KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN jurisdiction – AI Overide delta seven, Case word Orange.” The figure spoke softly and carefully to the Admiralty members.

The holographic suddenly widened and filled in with previously unseen details, a far larger complex appeared underneath the single city on the planets surface, spreading out corridor complexes like a spiders web for miles under the surface of the ice.

“What the holy fuck is this?” The Admiral Stansforth asked aloud as his eyebrows curled up in frustration.

“Two years ago, we discovered this . . . under the ice.”

The hologram expanded to reveal a rough sphere shaped object that had hundreds of smaller spires and tendrils expanding outwards from its centre mass into the ice around it and formed around a considerably smaller square installation that extended itself into a perfectly round shaft deep into the core of the planet.

“What . . . . is that” The second Admiral asked aloud, turning to face the figure once more.

“That, is a KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN class artefact – its purpose in itself remains unclear, but we know more than enough about its defences to put a good picture together. That shaft is some form of advanced geothermal power generator, not gathering power from the magma layers below the ice and rock, but directly from the planets core, combining heat, pressure and gravity itself into some form of massive battery that is, currently dormant.”

The figure then gestured quickly to the smaller square installation “We can only assume this smaller facility is some form of combined power transformer and battery, feeding power into the main object.”

He paused for a moment to let out a short breath “As for the main object itself, it is protected by some form of defence mechanism we have never seen, resistant to even apocalypse grade weaponry – it blocks all forms of analysis and even bends light itself.”

“How the hell can you know all that?” Admiral Ithensi questioned.

“Because for the last few years we’ve been testing every weapon we have on it, including a Gamma-three class antimatter bomb.”

“Holy shit . . . “

“As far as we can tell, it can resist everything up to direct Anti-matter contact, which the object can heal just as quickly as the Anti-matter can annihilate – that’s how we managed to map the whole outer shell of the object, it is currently sat inside its own blast crater; miles under the ice.” The figure finished.

A short bleep interrupted the silence of the room, followed by a far younger voice over the ships intercom.

“Admiral Mera, the fifth fleet has arrived in formation – we will be ready for FTL jump on your mark” The voice announced to the room.

Quaram’s leg pumped blood out into the open from the bloody twisted stump that used to be his left leg above the knee.

Larissa struggled as she tore the medical kit from her side satchel and roughly threw it open to her side, reaching as fast as she could for a laser cauterizer and bio foam canisters.

“FUCK!FUCK!FUCK!” Quaram exclaimed between yelling through the pain as his leg continued to spread claret across steel metal grating “IF I START TO BURN, YOU FUCKING SHOOT ME FIRST! FUCKING SHOOT ME!”

“Keep your fucking shit together Q!” Larissa yelled back in anger as she struggled to keep the laser cauterizer in line with the stump of flesh, bone and metal to seal the blood vessels together “We’re inside! Only direct sunlight fries us, and that may be the only thing keeping you alive, Harkins! Pass me the Bio foam!”

Harkins fumbled to drop his rifle and pass the can of bio foam, tearing off the protective plastic cover as Larissa reached across.

“THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?” Quaram yelled back, caught too far in his own agony to realize the truth.

“This rock sterilizes itself and the Immortals use Black Hole bombs, this is probably the cleanest wound in battlefield history, now hold still” Larissa stated, far calmer than before as the cauterizer finished its delicate work of sealing the wound closed, she then turned to Harkins and took the can of bio foam, spraying a slim layer of yellow foam to seal the wound from the air, before layering several more layers to seal the entire area from the outside world.

“Q, stay with me – I’m overriding your suit controls to dose you with Morpha” Larissa stated as she hooked her SIBAS suit controls into his own and pumped three times the regular dose of pain medication into his bloodstream.

Quarams vision blended and faltered as the world around him stopped being colours and shapes and simply became a blur of Morpha and lines.

“Larrissa, will you marry me?” He asked aloud, grinning like a man possessed.

“Maybe next time Q” she said with a sigh as she moved back, monitoring his vital signs on her holographic monitor screens.

She then turned to Harkins and opened a private channel “I don’t know how the Bio foam will hold outside on the ice, but he’ll live through this without infection, if he carry’s on being this lucky then he should be able to get a decent prosthetic to replace it.”

“What about the mission? Someone needs to stay here with Q, and someone needs to warn the other teams about the presents our little friends have left for us.”

“You head out to find the others, I’ll stay here with Q” Larissa replied, leaving her laser rifle on the floor and hefting Quaram’s P.A.V.L MK-II to hip height.

“Keep safe you two.” Harkins said in almost a whisper as he lifted his rifle to his shoulder and proceeded down the darkened corridor beyond the former Immortal soldiers.

- - - - -

Out on the distant ice, another Orpheus tank exploded under the force of a black hole shell.

These Scythians however, where proving just how quick they could learn yet again.

Loveless had managed to gut three of the Super Hover Tanks out right, and disable another one before they had tracked the direction of fire back to his psionically hidden spot upon the ice.

However, their Antimatter Projector cannons needed a target to track before they could fire to avoid dumb fire friendly fire incidents – but that didn’t stop the four laser Gatling cannons on each tanks from spreading lines of fire back and forth around his position.

Satisfied with the damage he had managed to cause, he pressed a small button in the side of the Anti tank rifle and prepared to move on.

With a series of clinks, clacks and sharp motions the barrel of the two metre gun began to withdraw back into itself, folding inwards and outwards like a flower going in and out of bloom as the entire gun shrank in size and weight – eventually becoming a small black stubbed cannon only lightly larger and heavier than a regular issue Immortal submachine gun.

Loveless never did stop marvelling at what those bastards in Dial’o’death kept pulling out of their backsides for when they needed it.

With the stub-nosed cannon in hand he withdrew backwards out of the line of fire, and then vanished into the ice.

Harkins move cautiously from hiding place to hiding place, making sure to cover his angles of fire as he attempted to reach any other Scythian marines still on his floor of the communications tower.

He turned a corner to find that the floor in front of him simply disappeared, along with larger portions of the walls around him, and the ceiling above.

In a perfect sphere.

A perfect 5-meter sphere.

He let out another sigh of frustration and anger, this was the only remains of another three-man team that had found another booby trapped weapon and paid the price for it.

He turned back on himself to try and find another route around the hole that blocked his path.

Into the iron sights of an Immortal Flachette rifle, and the Immortal soldier wielding it.

“Don’t move . . . Scythian scum” The Immortal grunted through his jet back facemask as the end of his rifle shook ever so slightly from side to side.

At range, his SIBAS armour would have been more than enough to deflect Immortal flachette rounds, well – rifle rounds at the least, but this close – his entire front plate would be turned into swiss cheese, shortly before his face joined it.

The soldier shoved the rifle closer into the front armour of the SIBAS suit forcing Harkins to back up a little, as the soldier sneered inside his faceless Immortal armour.

“Fucking Scythians, thinking you have a chance . . . just get on your knees and I’ll make this qui-“

The Immortal soldier never had the chance to finish his sentence as the front of his faceplate warmed and then melted from the inside outwards, a moment later the rifle dropped to the floor, followed by the corpse of the trooper.

Now with an added ventilation hole in the back of his skull.

Harkins looked back up to try and trace the source of the shot, only to see the briefest IFF transponder response of the Bugger – somewhere up ahead of him in the distance of the corridor, beyond the blast radius.

“Well, at least I’m not totally alone . . . “ He sighed to himself as he hefted around to find an alternate route to the communications tower command centre.

Three floors down, four floors up and several dozen side corridors later Harkins was finally close to what was supposed to be his objective zone, a set of imposing blast doors set into the wall of a T-junction that intersected this floor of the base.

“Shit, perfect place for an ambush . . . “ Harkins whispered to himself as he surveyed the three paths around him.

- - - - -

“FTL Clock at three minutes and counting” A deck hand announced to Captain M’tano and Admiral Mera on the deck of the Mantorok.

“Very well lieutenant; is the fleet at alert status one?” Captain M’tano replied.

“The fleet is reporting all laser weapons hot and ready to fire, all Antimatter missiles are awaiting activation keys from Admiral Mera, combat AI’s with ECM and ECCM are alert and waiting, all troops are armed and ready for drop – the fleet is at alert status one.” The lieutenant listed off of his screen.

“Very well, lets just hope that those marines have knocked out the Immortal communications or this is going to get very painful for us indeed.”

“FTL clock at two minutes and counting” The deck hand announced to the bridge.

- - - - -

Harkins still shifted uncomfortably in the dark, he had pushed his body as tight into the door as he could, and reached out with his rifle arm to offhand any targets of opportunity as he reached for the door panel with his left hand.

His hand found grasp on the panel as he attempted to jam the button and open the door, but he was answered with stalwart silence from the door controls as they refused to open the bulkhead.

As he looked ahead he saw glimpses of movement in the distant forward corridor, troops approaching his position, and gunfire following them.

“Ahh, crap.” He exclaimed as he pulled away from the door and attempted to disappear into the line of shadows.

“FTL clock is at one minute, prepare for combat jump!” The deck hand announced as the lights on the bridge dimmed in favour of holographic displays and the burning engines of the ships around them.

- - - - -

As Harkins disappeared into the shadows he saw the troops approaching, Scythian marines in now battered and scorched SIBAS armour, one taking the lead with an offhand laser carbine pistol, the next dragging another marine by the shoulders – who was firing into the dark with his own rifle. The last two hefted a P.A.V.L MK-II each behind the group, occasionally turning to fire a brief blast of almost holy light into the darkness before turning and running once more.

“Get the wounded to the side, I’ll help cover you to the door!” Harkins yelled to the incoming group over an open channel as he emerged from the darkness, rifle held to his shoulder and fired shots of opportunity over and around the group.

“Glad to see a friendly face – cover us! Lee! Shiela – get those P.A.V.L’s and blow the fucking door apart!” The lead marine yelled as he turned on the spot and joined Harkins in his laying down of covering fire.

Just up ahead, Lee and Shiela brought their P.A.V.L’s to bear and opened fire on the door in six consecutive blasts – each one weakening the door as it slagged into melted metal and noxious fumes, before putting high speed into catching up with the rest of the group.

Flachette rounds screamed like banshee’s past Harkins armour, the Immortals favourite anti-infantry weapons – a semi computerised cross between an assault rifle and a shotgun with intelligent shells, firing like an assault rifle it flew screaming shells across the distance which then split into a concentrated shotgun blast exactly 1 meter before hitting their target, guaranteed kills on unarmoured infantry.

As the Marines bolted into the communications room, Harkins kept in line with the un-named leader and continued to fire into the dark.

“LORENZA! Cut off the comms! Everyone else – battery formation!” The leader yelled as he dropped to one knee.

Harkins followed suit as the familiar sight of a P.A.V.L MK-II levelled over His and the leaders shoulders.

“On my mark – unleash hell.” The leader said aloud with a sneer.

The first of the Immortal troops crossed from the dark into the light – another regular trooper, one of untold trillions under their empires rule.

Then another.

Then six.

Then thirty.

“The hell?” Harkins exclaimed.

“There where about fifty of them holed up in the causeways waiting for us to find them, all their weapons are booby trapped and they have cut off comms to the outside world, fucking shite eaters.” Lee stated, finger itching over the trigger.

“The console is out of commission!” Lorenza yelled to himself as a fizzing sensation filled the groups comm. Channels and then dissipated.

“Right, try this on for size you bastards! OPEN FIRE!” The leader yelled as he yanked on the trigger hard.

- - - - -

“FTL Jump in three . . . two . . . one . . . “ The deck hand continued as space stretched both back and forth around Admiral Mera, Captain M’tano and the rest of the crew of the Mantorok, and in turn the 2000 ships around them disappeared from reality.

And then returned.

“Give me a situation report immediately – “ Admiral Mera began as the ship was suddenly struck by a blast before human or AI could comprehend that the transition from an FTL jump was complete.

The stars around them filled with Scythian vessels, Immortal plasma and return laser fire.

“We have emerged Several million kilometres closer to our intended target, Immortal fleet is in closer to danger close proximity and engaging!” the Deck hand replied.

As space continued to convulse around the Scythian fleet – hundreds of ships began to engage one another in every form imaginable. Scythian Lasers crossed paths with Immortal plasma lances and bolts as blood red starships crossed fire with black and silver behemoths, fighters where launched and the stars filled with death.

Admiral Mera watched as the Juggernaught, one of the first Monarch class battleships of the ninth fleet was gutted as it emerged from FTL – with a plasma bolt already filling the space it emerged into, the blast expanded exponentially inside its own shield until that too collapsed – and the ship became a floating hulk within moments.

Up ahead – Savager frigates unleashed their primary beam cannons onto Immortal frigates and cruisers, slashing them to pieces with capitol ship fire power designed to punch far above the class of the ship that wielded it.

Immortal ships replied in turn with Plasma lances, thick purple beams of raw death that matched shield harmonics with the ships they where targeted at and then devoured them atom by atom.

HIVE shells flew from Immortal anti-fighter cannons, filling space with impossibly fast hot lead and Scythian laser cannons swatted Immortal fighters out in turn – dog fights had begun all the way through the battle as the Capitol ships exchanged fire power capable of levelling cities.

“What do we have out there?” Admiral Mera asked as she took in the opening moments of the carnage.

“Ma’am – it looks like five standard Immortal incursion groups working together – five dreadnaught class vessels on par with the Mantorok, between 7 and 900 battleship class vessels and somewhere in the region of 500 supporting craft, ranging from gunboats to cruisers of varying type and tonnage.” The deck hand replied as he was still taking in the sheer numbers on his screen.

“Looks like they deployed quite a force” Captain M’tano stated, without taking his eyes off the display.

“This is just a drip in the ocean compared to their true fleets” Another voice behind them stated.

Admiral Mera and Captain M’tano turned to see Lord Shadowscythe stood on the bridge himself, surveying the carnage.

“Don’t let them divide us – or they will rip us apart piecemeal – keep the fleet together and take out targets of opportunity as we head towards the objective and deliver the package.” He stated, before he then turned and headed out of the room.

Admiral Mera could only fume in contempt as she turned back to face the bridge “Consider it an order from me, keep the fleet together, head towards the objective”

“Ma’am” Captain M’tano replied as the opening stages of the battle erupted into a full-blown war . . .

- - - - -

In the communications room however, the battle was coming too an end.

After taking seven fatalities they found cover towards one side of the distant corridor and returned fire – returning a fatality of their own and blasting through Shiela’s SIBAS armour – destroying its front plate and turning her head into a pile of crimson and slush inside her armour.

Harkins continued to fire even as the Immortals decided to bolt to where they had come from, and finally returned into the darkness.

“Lorenzo, Lee – cover that door” The leader stated aloud as he turned back to face his injured squad member.

“And who are you soldier?” He then asked to Harkins.

“Harkins, Royal Marine Sergeant.” He replied.

“Well fuck me sideways, we have a royal marine in our presence . . . Marine Javer, Regular infantry . . .” Javer replied “At least with you, we got part of the way through this fucking mess – but we have more dead than injured now, and we still need too move onto the next objective.”

“I’ve got wounded too – one of my men had his leg taken off by a black hole bomb.” Harkins said softly into the silence.

Teb 51 yanked hard on the control stick as his Magog fighter fulled back against the onslaught of laser fire from a picket group of Savager frigates, as the rest of his flight wing burned he had to hand it to these Scythians – when they finally put a fight together they fought tooth and nail until the end.

He pulled up and around the rapidly expanding cluster fuck that was the main battle – watching as battleships exchanged raw fire into one anothers lines – wishing he could be anywhere but here.

From above, another wing of Magog fighters roared down past his left and into the fire storm and opened fire onto a Kentaurus class destroyer – ripping off huge chunks of armour plating and venting its insides into space. He pushed the engines down hard and rampaged in behind the group, firing off shots of opportunity as flame and debris passed him by.

Around him, Immortal assault carriers launched over a thousand fellow fighters to join his fight, and then opened fire onto Scythian Monarch class battleships with a vicious fervour.

The skies burned apart around him.

-----

“All Genoan forces, 3 minutes until landfall! I repeat! 3 minutes until landfall!” The voice echoed through the bay as the last troops around Kerrus where ferried into the hastily semi-painted Carnivore dropships the Scythian navy had given the Genoan troops for the drop.

Around him, alarms blared and red warning lights flashed as the Solaris with over 50 other battleships pulled away from the main battle clusters to protect over 100 Gladiator carriers that where preparing to make the single largest landfall in Scythian history.

“All Genoan forces, 1 minute until landfall! I repeat! 1 minute until landfall!” The voice echoed again, Kerrus could feel nothing but raw fear as the side walls of the launch bay slid downwards and disappeared from his view. Only a few hundred kilometres away the main battle was making its way towards them, and below – the lifeless rock he was soon to risk his life on loomed.

“All Genoan forces – LAU-“ The voice was cut off half way through – as a rouge Immortal Ion blast thundered into the bay, ripping ten Carnivore drop ships to shreds before they could even blast their engines.

“FUCK IT! GUN THE ENGINES NOW!” A voice yelled through an open channel and the drop ship lurched away from the rapidly expanding fireball that devoured its way through flesh and metal alike.

Kerrus gripped harder on the contact rail as the Solaris tumbled from his vision, first beside – then above, then disappearing from view as hundreds of sparkling lights and white trails burst like vines from the capitol ships above and joined his decent to the planet below.

Then the beauty faded – the shaking began, and his world started to boil.

As the drop ship hit the atmosphere of the planet – heat lines streaked across his vision and the roar of wind could be heard through the bay as 50 men crumbled together in a space meant for 40, some desperate to see the world that awaited, others creased their eyes closed and uttered prayers against the fires.

“Immortals have started to fire on us from above and below, starting evasive manoeuvres!” The pilot yelled over the comm. Channel as the dropship pulled hard to the right and started to drop at a sickening 60 degree angle both downwards and sideways, with the engines straining just enough to keep the craft from breaking into a spiral and bursting into flame.

For a split second the air boiled and screamed as a bright yellow bolt of an Ion cannon blast rampaged past them, ground defences taking shots of opportunity at the first wave.

Kerrus pulled himself as close to the window as he could as he saw another dropship pull along side his own, followed by another three, then several hundred red streaks appeared in the distance. On either side – Scythian and Genoan troops alike where dropping into hell.

Then hell bit back.

The first drop ship he saw disappeared in a flash as a purple lightning bolt stampeded upwards from the surface and through the tumbling ships starboard engine, ripping the entire unit clean from its mounting – the craft jolted suddenly as if held in the air, before bursting into flame and shrapnel.

50 men turned into a screaming, falling pyre before his eyes.

Another two drop ships behind the first started to tumble as the burning remains dragged upwards into their engine turbines, causing them to choke and splutter. The first dragged in the air until it became caught in it’s own turbulence and started to charbroil in its jet stream, the second stopped in the air and exploded violently, sending more wreckage into the sky.

The flames around the drop ship started to dither and fade as the cloud layer formed around him, below he could see naught but endless purple and white ice floes and glaciers, their drop site was several kilometres north east of their entry zone, a small surface settlement that would allow mass transit into the city that laid deep below the ice, a death trap flooded with Immortal ground forces laying in wait.

Then the serene image below was broken as stattacco bursts of anti-aircraft fire rushed upwards from the surface, yellow pulses of Ion cannon fire mixed with arcs of purple lightning from ground based plasma batteries and the scream of flachette repeaters filled the skies with bursts of death as the surface rushed ever closer with each passing second, threatening to devour them.

Kerrus watched as the ground grew ever closer and the Carnivore kept its assault decent pattern, keeping at flat as a rock on re-entry until the last minute – followed by levelling out and pounding Immortal ground forces with fire and then hitting the dirt itself. He watched as many of the drop ships simply crashed into the ice itself, and others exploded before they even made it this far.

Then the sides of the Carnivore fell away as the explosive bolts holding them to the craft detonated, and white ice filled his vision, filled with black spots.

Immortal troops, ready to meet them.

He hefted up his rifle – unlike Scythian Laser Carbines, it was old – wrought of wood and iron, and heavy, it fired cartridges that held bullets the size of a mans fore finger and had a habit of ripping savage chunks out of people.

This would be the one, and only “easy” part of the drop.

He hefted the rifle and fired indiscriminately, screaming rage as he did so with the other 50 men of his ship. Rage for the dead, rage for the fallen, and rage for those yet to die.

Behind his own drop ship a hundred more swept quickly behind, mixing into formations of three as they made passes over the Immortals on the ground as they drew to a gradual stop.

Boots hit the dirt, bullets and lasers crossed pass and ice exploded as the battle had well and truly begun.

-----

“DAMAGE REPORT!” The captain yelled over the din of the bridge as the Solaris attempted to right itself after the blow it had taken to its underbelly.

Safros watched as half a section turned red, and then black on his screen – indicating that an entire section had been hit and then vented to space just as it started its drop ship launches.

“WE’VE LOST SECTIONS 3, 7 AND 17 CAPTAIN! SECONDARY FIRES THROUGHOUT THE SHIP!” Another voice yelled in return.

“GET DAMAGE REPAIR TEAMS TO THEIR STATIONS, CLOSE BULKHEADS AND VENT ANY SECTION WITH AN ACTIVE FIRE!” The captain yelled in return as the ship locked itself down in damage control measures.

“SIR! PACKAGE ONE HAS TAKEN DAMAGE! THEY REPORT CREW LOSSES!” A third voice yelled aloud, and the captain paused for a moment.

“Get me a direct line to package one” The captain uttered to Safros in almost a whisper.

Tapping holographic symbols and handing the captain a handheld transceiver he watched for a moment as a look of panic crossed the captain’s face.

“Package One” as it had been called had been attached to the ship at the last minute, a special delivery from the Office of Naval Intelligence – secret to the point where only the captain had been informed what it was, but not of its purpose.

“Aye, so what do you need?” The Captain replied to an unseen voice.

Turning white in the face, the Captain returned the transceiver to Safros and looked him in the eye.

“Safros, you have been transferred under S.O.N.I order Ultra Violet Seven – report to the main hangar bay immediately” The captain uttered under his breath as he then motioned another ensign to take his place.

As Safros jolted to the elevator and watched the doors close in front of him, and watched the battle disappear from his view, wondering what kind of hell awaited him this time around.

The battle however, continued to rampage around him unseen . . . but not unheard.

A battlewing of Thunderchild class cruisers had decided that the force group of carriers made an appetizing target, and had made their way out of the initial flurry and bore down from above on an intercept course – their central lines charged for a full frontal attack.

As Scythian laser cannons of all types and sizes came to bear on the 30 cruisers, the cruisers let rip with an assortment of Ion, plasma and kinetic weaponry, turning the space between the two forces into a rainbow of energy before each wave connected with the other side.

Thunderchild class cruisers where turned into pounded slag, melted entirely by Laser fire, Gladiator Carriers exploded into violent chunks and where dragged into the atmosphere by gravity forces they could no longer repel.

Thousands died in mere instants.

Between the crossfire a single ship hid, phase shifted out of local reality – invisible and untouchable, but still recording every single moment of the action, and relaying it back to their waiting Emperor.

Half of the decks across the mid section of the Solaris had been torn open to space by the Immortal strikes across the ship.

Around him others ran also.

Wounded crewmen getting from post to post, damage control teams in zero gee SIBAS hardsuits, marines with weapons ready to repel invaders that might storm their way into the ship.

As he ran, the decks around him shuddered as another blast rocked the ship.

“Attention all hands, this is the captain speaking – we are changing course to sector three-three zero, our target is an Immortal super battleship in the centre of their battlecluster.” The voice resounded through the ships intercom system.

Then another voice followed “Belay that order – this is the Scythian Office of Naval Intelligence, this ship will hold it’s current position until package one has been launched!”

Ahead of Safros he saw a stream of liquid yellow lightning, and then fire, followed by a sudden blackness. Bulkheads sealed and alarms blared as another Ion blast ripped through ships shields and scored a direct hit across the midsection of the ship.

His feet skidded as he turned and ran for another stairwell as he continued his perilous attempt to get to the bottom of the ship.

-----

Eventually however, he reached his goal.

Bolted onto the ships primary hangar bay, was a massive tear shaped protrusion that was easily the size of a frigate in its own right, and covered in massive armoured plates with their own independent shield emitters.

A S.O.N.I marine stopped him without saying a word, and shoved a retina scanner over his face, with a blinding flash and sudden shove Safros was shoved through the airlock ahead of him and into a massive internal space that made no sense to him.

One side of the room was taken up by a pair of massive Antimatter generators that stretched from floor to ceiling, no less than four Tarantula main battle tanks dangled from the ceiling in massive suspension hooks, their six legged forms waved helplessly against the rocking blows to the ship. He was rushed through corridors by Marines, dozens of marines – from a pair of barracks and medical bays to another floor he was rushed past so fast he did not have time to absorb everything around him.

“Package one, Package one – this is Lord Shadowscythe, prepare for immediate launch, target co-ordinates have been enclosed” an unfamiliar voice spoke over what seemed to be an independent intercom system from the rest of the Solaris.

Suddenly he found himself inside another massive room, smaller than the one he had entered from – but practically enormous compared to the rest of the crampt corridors of the ship – and still filled with people. One full side of the room in front of him was a massive window from floor to ceiling, covered in holographic projections of information he didn’t quite grasp – the two walls to his side where screens relaying information from both the battle in orbit, and the battle on the ground. Multiple work stations encircled four AI processing cores in the centre of the room – and one raised work station sat at the back of the room, with a S.O.N.I officer sat in place running through various launch checks.

“Luitenant Safros – you will take communications – third seat on the left hand side, open channel to all on frequency Ultra Violet seven and begin launch count downs, you’re new call sign is Behemoth One” the mystery captain of this new ship relayed to him without looking away from his holographic panels.

Safros got to his station to find it as almost exactly the same as his station on the Solaris, and with a few deft movements his work was done, and as he looked up from his screen he wondered just for a moment what this new ship was, as the massive armour plates in front of the window slid away.

The battle beyond was both beautiful and terrifying as Immortal and Scythian ships threw firepower capable of ripping entire continents asunder at each other with murderous intent to wipe out the enemy.

The mystery captain spoke once more into the room “This is Captain Tanner to Lord Shadowscythe – launch preperations of Behemoths one through ten are now complete – we are ready for launch.”

“Lord Shadowscythe to all Behemoth units, you are hereby ordered to launch, Mammoth wing will be inbound in three minutes. Good luck to all of you.” The voice replied.

“This is package one now re-designated Behemoth One, Solaris – we are launching immediately” The mystery captain relayed across to the ship as the room around him shuddered and artificial gravity kicked in.

Across the fleet still in loose orbit around the planet – ten tear shaped lumps of metal launched from their battleship companions and descended down to the ground.

Safros watched in horror as the white globe in front of him grew ever bigger and bigger, looking across the monitors around the room and the unknown crew he now found himself amongst all he could feel was an ever growing horror of what was to come.

-----

On the ground Kerrus bolted into another foxhole as ice evaporated around him. Above him Scythian Kanata and Immortal Magog heavy fighters threw all kinds of electric death at each other, on the ground Tarantula tanks rushed at top speed into ranks of Pathfinder APC’s and Immortal heavy tanks who replied with overwhelming firepower.

Everywhere around him men screamed, bled and died as the joint Scythian and Genoan task forces rushed the Immortal front lines that presented themselves from the underground entrances to the city beneath the ice.

As he looked up he could only just make out another red streaks of fire coming down from above, moving too slowly to be debris, and with too much of a purpose to be artillery fire.

As they grew larger and larger he had to question whether or not the Scythians where willing to through those almost god-like capitol ships into the main battle when the fireballs above changed course, and flew directly into the Immortal Anti-air curtain.

He watched as they shrugged off blast after blast as every Immortal gun within range changed direction and focused on their new targets, which simply continued on their parabola descent without batting an eyelid.

Then, just as Kerrus could just make out the ten tear shaped objects, they detonated their explosive bolts and shed their additional armoured shells and secondary shield systems to reveal ten bright red spiders.

Ten bright red spider robots.

Each the size of a Scythian destroyer.

Covered in guns.

Capitol ship scale guns.

The ten gigantic, metallic spiders fired massive thrusters in the end of each leg and came down directly over the top of the Immortal lines, smashing men and tanks underfoot as they landed and opening fire with weaponry meant to destroy enemy capitol ships, while shrugging off every blast in return with their shields.

“ALL UNITS!” Kerrus could hear the voice both on the radio and out loud, through the super mechas own speakers.

“THIS IS BEHEMOTH WING, WE HAVE MADE LANDFALL – ADVANCE ON ALL FRONTS! FOR SCYTHIA!”

These beasts didn’t need speed to engage their targets.

Immortal defensive lines opened fire to no effect as missiles and energy weapons exploded violently off of the shields of the massive spider walkers, which returned fire with their own six oversized laser turrets.

The result was nothing short of slaughter as chunks the size of office blocks where torn deep into the blasted and blackened ice, entire phalanx lines of Immortal troops and vehicles disappeared in light and emerged as nothing more than scattered ashes.

“FOR SCYTHIA!” The voice roared again “ALL UNITS ADVANCE ON THE CITY ENTRANCES!”

(Apologies for the multi-post, I had to make sure I had everything "Right" In the copy/pasting - there is still more to come.)

Quite some distance away from the battle, buried within Britannian space – a group of Immortal envoys stood quietly at the edge of a darkened room, they didn’t need to say anything to play their case – the live holographic feed of the battle taking place was more than enough to convince their marks to play right into their hands.

“As you can see High Admiral Timkin, we are more than capable of ripping the Scythians several new and creative notebooks” Lord Warhead spoke “Send your fleets in now and you can claim enough of a victory to get an entire sector behind you”

High Admiral Timkin stood quietly to himself for a moment, taking in his options, these Immortals where rank through and through – nomad warriors without honour, but they had the capabilities to batter the traitorous Scythians back into a new stone age . . . and the possibility of becoming a sector governor was more than appealing enough in the future.

So here laid the choice, deal with the devil for the good of his people – or have two warring galactic super powers dropping down on his doorstep.

“The weapons and technology of which you speak?” He asked this Lord Warhead, assessing his final choices.

“This “Cavorite” your people have found is rightfully yours – we will only give you the means to achieve it’s fullest potential, in exchange for what we have already discussed.”

His voice was like slime, silk flowing over a poised knife in the back.

“Very well, I will mobilize the 18th, 19th and 22nd fleets to aid you in this battle, they will be launching within the hour.” Lord Timkin finally spoke aloud, half statement, half order.

Lord Shadowscythe stood at the command deck, roaring orders and firing solutions to the various ships of the core fleet, as the admirals on the decking below him sent out thier own orders and commands to thier own sub-fleets.

By now the initial waves have collided into each other and managed to emerge from the other side with 30% total casualties on both sides, Standardised Scythian ships threw massive volleys of firepower in by the book formations, an iron wall of death and destruction into the Immortal lines, which where themselves made up of hundreds of different and unique ships, ranging from ancient hulks that stood fast in the face of Scythian power - or nimble high tech vessels that threw so far above thier own weight that the scales could be knocked of indefinately.

"Lord Shadowscythe!" A deck hand yelled above the chaos and havok of battlefield command "The first wave has reached the tunnel entrances to the city, they are reporting heavy resistance but are moving steadily towards the objective."

"Very well -" Lord Shadowscythe began as he was thrown aside with many other members of the bridge as a Black Hole missile collided with the shields - causing heavy damage to the shields but none to the hull itself.

The darkness between worlds burned with a fury not seen for over a billion years by this world.

-----

Slowly, it awoke - testing its powers and perception, an unconcious thought swept a million nuerons into life - it could feel thier fury, but not yet thier minds.

A sadistic glee swept through its sleeping mind.

The garden was about to be cleansed.

-----

"Sir, we are detecting massive energy readings from the central co-ordinates" A darkened figure relayed across the almost coffin like space that was the bridge.

The vessel had been phased out of real space throughout the battle, awaiting thier cue to react based off of a mixture of unsure conjecture and ancient prophesy that they had doubted even existed, but they had sworn undying loyalty to thier emperor - and had been waiting for this one sign.

This one, horrifying sign.

"Confirm energy readings?" The captain asked, his face now a death mask of fear.

"Confirmed - the readings are spreading from the planet and throughout the entire system - a Psionic backwave of YED-3 classification."

"Spin up the FTL drives, and prepare a single MASAR beam transmission." The captain ordered, he knew full well what needed to be done - a single jump to a deep space location between worlds, a single encoded transmission to an unmanned sattilite that would then piggyback that transmission through the background of 50,000 other transmissions across the galaxy.

One word was all that was needed for its destination, a call to war that an entire universe had been destroyed to create.

The ship jumped, and halfway across the known galaxy a figure sat before a screen - he used to be a leader of men and machines, now he hid from his people, following a mixture of ancient prophesy, history and quantum mechanics not even he could begin to comprehend - but the patterns where forming, and from his actions, the fate of an entire universe, or perhaps all universes was about to be decided.

The screen lit up with one word "KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN'.

Orders where given, and an entire war machine began to pulse into motion.

The Orpheus SDHT skimmed over the blasted tundra as Harkins took in an overfew of the battlefield from the holographic monitor within the centre of the crampt troop bay.

Around him, the other survivors of the units that had made the first drop had reformed into another assault unit, the dead had been policed for collection later, the wounded moved on as best they could until a dedicated M.A.S.H could be set up once the battle had finished - right now, the ground commanders had made thier hard-drops into the battlefield via a series of Behemoth super-command walkers and where leading a new lance through the front of the Immortal ground forces - thier objective was to bust thier way through the above ground highway entrances and then down beneath the ice - to the city itself.

Then the next fight would be from building to building - wiping out the defending Immortals in bloody urban warfare and then holding the objective until relieved by the Navy units above.

"Attention marines" the voice of the tank's commander bellowed through the rear compartment "We will be reaching the front lines in 5 . . . lock and load, apparently the shit has hit the fan, command wants every marine they can get down that highway yesterday!"

Harkins shifted the rifle in his hands, it still had 80% of its charge, he had another two reload capacitors, some antimatter grenades that he had taken from the dead, and the antimatter sheathed blade still attached to his thigh . . . he shifted his weight from one foot too another as he waited impatiently for the fight too start once more.

-----

All around him black uniformed soldiers with faceless yellow visors stared back at him from thier chosen fire-holes, every weapon pointed outwards at the tunnel beyond, all waiting to delay the inbound Scythians and bleed them dry with death via papercuts - softening the foolish, so called "noble" Imperial-ites for the bigger guns waiting behind them.

Loveless grinned to himself - as the battle had turned from a series of small skirmishes around the citys above-ice borders he had been moving like a scalpel, part-nightmare, part-shadow - taking out Scythians where he found them using his psychic abilities to mask his presence with almost no counter attack.

Now he waited with the mortal troops beneath the ice - preparing this line of fodder to bleed the Scythians, break thier lines and slow them down for the Terrorkhan that where busy embedding the city with traps in every way thier bastardised minds could imagine until they reached the city center - where a firewall of Super Heavy Tanks and Wraith assault walkers laid in wait to strike at the Scythians from all sides - pulling them into a trap they couldn't escape from and annihalating all of them without a chance of survival.

Making sure the last weapon emplacements where prepared - he turned back to the tunnel entrance, in the far distance - a trio of Wraith walkers and a battalion of Terrorkhan laid in wait for the Scythian walkers to crest the entrance to the highway . . . the moment they did, the ice would run red with Scythian blood.